Art collectors in town for Expo Chicago this weekend have an opportunity to see something they won’t find anywhere else on the international art-fair circuit. The South Side Community Art Center—the only surviving center of more than a hundred launched by the Works Progress Administration—has
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Displayed in SSCAC’s landmark home, an 1893 brownstone with a Bauhaus interior, it features the work of 44 black male artists, most of them local, all with ties to Chicago. Since each artist contributed a single work, it’s a richly varied tapestry, packed with pieces that have the muscle of a mission beyond their own making. And although most of the artwork is for sale, it’s not about the selling.
It’s an unusual mix, with the work of recognized artists like Dawoud Bey and Hebru Brantley hung next to relative unknowns, and mature artists like Sherman Beck (who’ll have a solo show at SSCAC in November) rubbing elbows with emerging artists like Stephen Flemister. The Beck piece in this show, Contemplation, is an amalgam of the south-side front-stoop neighborhoods of the artist’s youth that conjures up the blues and the dreams that were in the air then. Flemister’s piece is a larger-than-life bust, an “everyman” that looks like it was carved from a dense block of wood—until you walk around to the back, where the skull’s gaping and you can see that it’s folded cardboard.
Through 10/5, South Side Community Art Center, 3831 S. Michigan, 773-373-1026, southsidecommunityartcenter.com. Free.
